Flight attendants throughout the nation, together with in Boston, are demanding that United Airlines repair its operational and staffing deficiencies, which they are saying have left them — and their prospects — grounded for hours after flight cancellations.
Andrew Fahy, president of United AFA Boston, which represents United Airlines flight attendants, mentioned Tuesday’s demonstration at Logan International Airport was aimed toward getting the corporate “to sit up and take notice” of its staffing drawback.
“We can’t get a hold of the crew desk, we can’t work,” he mentioned. “We’re not in charge of where we go.”
According to the union, staffing shortages within the United Airlines crew middle have left flight attendants unable to succeed in anybody for help after flights have been canceled. This has left them on maintain for hours whereas they wait to be reassigned to a different flight, Fahy mentioned.
In many circumstances, Fahy mentioned, attendants are left stranded in airports in a single day, notably youthful workers who could not be capable of afford resort lodging in the event that they’re not instantly reimbursed by the airline. Some go with out sleep, he mentioned.
“You have so many people on hold who can’t work,” Fahy mentioned. “We’re hoping to get the company’s attention in a louder way to say, ‘Hey, you have this particular problem.’ We can’t fix this because we don’t run the crew desk. Take ownership of this.”
The protest at Logan Airport was a lot smaller than what was seen in different places all through the U.S. and in Guam and London on Tuesday. Only 10 flight attendants picketed in Boston, as a result of constraints with the group’s allow from Massport, which owns and operates the airport.
Southwest Airlines flight attendants joined among the protests on Tuesday as effectively.
According to knowledge from FlightConscious, there have been 6,804 canceled flights and 67,745 delayed flights from United Airlines between May and Sept. 21 of this 12 months.
An absence of communication from administration throughout these schedule adjustments has left flight attendants with out the required assist to deal with passenger considerations, a union spokesman mentioned.
United Airlines mentioned it has already taken steps to deal with the issue.
“We’ve worked hard to reduce wait times for flight attendants to talk to a crew scheduler, including more hiring and adding digital options for some items,” a United Airlines spokesperson mentioned.
While United UFA, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, is within the midst of contract negotiations, Fahy mentioned their beef will not be as a result of a contractual dispute.
It’s no secret that United Airlines had a nasty summer season, he mentioned, citing schedule adjustments and frequent flight cancellations.
“It’s a system-wide problem,” Fahy mentioned. “It’s not just United. We’re just trying to get United to fix it.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”